Personal Notes
I am proud to not only live in Bethlehem, PA but also maintain my main office here, too. My fellow residents of Bethlehem are proud of its progress-and the attention it receives nationally and internationally. Fellow Lehigh Valley residents are pleased to see the renaissance permeate throughout the entire valley. Bethlehem is a microcosm of America. It was founded by individuals seeking freedom to express their religious views. Many possessed highly skilled craftsmanship which helped form an industrial base. This eventually grew to a world renowned heavy industrial center. Bethlehem then transitioned through the disassembling of America’s industrial base in the last quarter-century to emerge with a broad based economy, fast becoming a regional center for the arts, entertainment and historical/cultural programming.
Arts, entertainment and historical/cultural programming are
making a big impact within Bethlehem and the Lehigh Valley. Employers are
choosing to locate their companies in the Lehigh Valley over competitors, in
part, because of these. Three new hotels were opened in Bethlehem last
year, the only city its size to do so in Pennsylvania-and one of very few in
America. As Jeff Parks, President of Bethlehem-based ArtsQuest was quoted
in the Morning Call on Saturday:
“What we are doing at ArtsQuest is
simply not being done anywhere else. We are, in many respects, on the
cutting edge of arts and cultural programming in communities of less than a
million people.”
Personally, if I am going to “Talk the talk” then I will
“walk the walk” by increasing my involvement in my community. I fulfill
this community service ambition, in part, by serving on both the Historic
Bethlehem Partnership Board and the ArtsQuest (Musikfest, SteelStacks, &
The Banana Factory) Foundation Board. Perhaps, you too would like to
increase your community involvement. Click on the hyperlinks below to
explore membership or other ways of involvement in these two (which are just a
couple examples of many fine organizations in the LV):
http://www.historicbethlehem.org
Through the many discussions with Bethlehem and Lehigh Valley
clients and the involvement on the Historic Bethlehem and ArtsQuest Boards, I
am developing a 30,000 feet look at what is happening in Bethlehem and the
greater Lehigh Valley– and its moving in the right direction. Perhaps, if
Stanley Kubrick were here, he might say, “The most extraordinarily amazing
things are about to happen”.
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